Does a Comprehensive Claim Raise Your Car Insurance Rates?

A comprehensive claim can affect your car insurance, but usually not the way an at-fault accident does. Texas's insurance department answers the general question with: it depends on the type of claim and how many you file. Comprehensive losses, such as theft, hail, fire, vandalism, flying gravel, or hitting an animal, are not caused by your driving, so they do not add an at-fault accident or a ticket to your record, which are the things Texas's auto guide says companies charge you more for. What a comprehensive claim does do is land on your claims history, where it can cost you a claim-free discount and, if it is one of several claims, change how an insurer views you at renewal.

What makes a claim comprehensive

Comprehensive, which Texas also calls other-than-collision coverage, pays if your car is stolen or damaged by something other than a crash. Washington's regulator defines it as reimbursing you for loss due to theft or damage caused by something other than a collision with another car or object, and gives fire, vandalism, and contact with an animal such as a deer as examples. Texas's policy table lists fire, hail, theft, flood, flying gravel, and hitting an animal. Collision is the other physical-damage coverage: Washington says it pays if you collide with another car or object or your car flips over, including driving over potholes. The line between the two is why a deer strike and a swerve into a ditch are rated differently even though both leave you with a damaged car.

What regulators say about rates after a claim

Texas says home and auto insurance companies can raise your premium for filing most types of claims, and that auto companies can raise your premium if you have had accidents or gotten traffic tickets. It also says you could lose any discounts you are getting for being claim free. Washington's commissioner says insurers use your claims history, meaning the number of claims you have filed, to determine your premiums, and that they could even non-renew your policy after you file a claim. None of these statements carve out comprehensive claims. The distinction most insurers draw in practice is between at-fault accidents, which commonly carry a surcharge, and not-at-fault or comprehensive losses, which commonly do not, but a claim is still a claim when an insurer counts them.

What cannot be held against you

Texas lists things home and auto companies cannot charge you more for: claims you file that the company did not pay, including claims it denied because your policy does not cover the damage, and calling your company or agent to ask questions about your policy or the claims process. That matters for comprehensive losses because many are small and close to the deductible. Asking whether a windshield chip or a hail dent is worth filing is not a claim, and Washington's regulator notes LexisNexis advises insurers not to report claims information when you only ask a coverage or deductible question.

Where the claim lives afterward

A filed claim goes into the Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange, the CLUE database most insurers use. Washington's regulator says an insurer submits a CLUE report when it starts, denies, or pays out a claim, that the report generally contains up to seven years of personal-auto and personal-property claims history, and that insurers may request it when you apply for coverage or a quote. Texas adds that a company can charge you more or refuse to sell you a policy based on what is in it. So even if your current insurer does not surcharge a comprehensive claim, the next insurer you quote with will see it.

When filing makes sense

• The loss is large relative to your deductible: a stolen car, a flood, a fire, or heavy hail damage is exactly what comprehensive is for, and the premium effect of one such claim is small next to the cost.
• The loss is a total loss or a theft: there is no paying out of pocket for a car that is gone, and a lender will expect the claim to be filed.
• Glass: some policies carry a separate, lower glass deductible, and a windshield claim that costs the insurer little is a weak basis for a surcharge. Check the declarations page before deciding.
• You have had no other claims in the past several years: one comprehensive claim on an otherwise clean history is the easiest case for an insurer to overlook.

When paying out of pocket may be the better move

Texas's advice is to consider your deductible and get repair estimates before filing. If the repair costs only a little more than the deductible, the insurer pays almost nothing, you may still lose the claim-free discount, and the entry sits on your CLUE report for years. The same goes for a second or third small claim in a short period, since Washington notes insurers count the number of claims. Get a written estimate, compare it with the deductible, and file when the difference is meaningful.

If your rate does go up

Ask the insurer, in writing, what changed and whether the comprehensive claim was the reason. If the answer is a lost claim-free discount, ask when it can be restored. If you are told the claim was rated as an at-fault accident, dispute that with the insurer and, if needed, your state insurance department, since a theft or weather loss is not a driving event. And shop: insurers weigh comprehensive claims differently, and a quote from a company that does not surcharge them is the fastest fix.

The bottom line

A comprehensive claim is not an at-fault accident and is not treated like one, but it is still a claim. It can cost a claim-free discount, it counts toward claim frequency, and it stays on your CLUE report for up to seven years. File when the loss is real and clearly above the deductible, do not file for amounts close to it, and never let a question to your agent turn into a recorded claim.